Taking Flight
by maxride45
Summary: A Maximum Ride FanFic I wrote for a writing class. Started out as a short story-first chap is like a prologue-but you wanted more! Emily and Jake are two bird kids rising to fame in Freakdom, and they've begun to gain a Flock. Not sure what else yet. :P
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

I couldn't stand it anymore, dry heat making me sticky with sweat. Cole was going to get it now. I felt Jacob next to me, landing, his wing brushing against mine. His black wings were burning hot, and, brushing against my snowy white wing, practically burned me. I pulled away involuntarily. The down sides of being a half bird test-tube baby.

But someone had to get rid of Cole, right?

"We going in?" Jake asked. Well, duh, I thought. I turned to look at Jake and his dark brown eyes were wandering, eating up everything around us. Memorizing exits, noticing landmarks, making a general map in his head of anything and everything within as far as the eye can see. And when you have raptor vision, that's pretty far.

I wanted to get back in the sky. Flying over the desert is the best way to experience it-you don't feel the heat up there. But no, we had to be on land. Leave it to Cole to settle down in Arizona. Bleh.

"Yes, we're going in," I finally replied. "The question is how do we get in?" We looked north and south, scanning the wall. The building was about ten feet high and fifty feet wide, and from what we could see, solid. And how they kept it so white in this place I would never know. "They better pay the guys who dust this thing a fortune," Jake said, reading my mind. Leave it to him to read my mind.

"Well, let's go," I said, jumping and spreading my wings out to fly over the building.

And of course, some infrared beam caught me and an alarm sounded.

Great.

I looked around and red lights came out of the corners of the roof. The place still looked like a white box, until finally a robot rose up through the ceiling, a mess of silver and blue and what practically looked like stickers from a toy robot. It didn't look real at all.

Until it started shooting at us.

Dodging the bullets, flying straight up in a zigzag, this little mission was looking more and more difficult. But I knew our only chance of getting in was through the same hatch that the robot and come up from, and it's little platform was still there, raised about three feet above the ceiling, leaving a gaping hole practically inviting us in. I'm not one to be so impolite as to refuse that invitation. So I yelled "Race you to the lab!" tucked my wings in, and cut through the air like a laser beam to get inside. I zoomed through the three feet of space under the platform, narrowly missing a bullet, a concussion, and simply falling, but I made it, coming to a smooth landing on the ground below. Jake was right behind me, laughing.

"Shut up!" I whisper-screamed at him. He laughed more, and I rolled my eyes. Stupid boys. But we soon decided not to go for stealth, and stormed through the place, opening doors and peering in, looking for Cole.

"Not in here," we would say at almost every door and look to each other in dismay. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Where was the egomaniac?

Finally, of course the last door in the bright white hallway we were currently in, opened to a long room that seemed to stretch, fifteen feet wide and fifty feet long, along that whole side of the building. It was lined with cages, huge dog crates just like the ones we'd been imprisoned in. Inside were new "experiments" like us-people and animals that had been morphed together, their identities stripped away, more often given a product number than a name. Cole was evil, pure evil, and absolutely-

"Insane, I know," said an icy voice at the end of the room, not loudly but carrying through the long chamber. Another thing about Cole: all mutants have their own little powers. Cole's was mind reading. Mine was barking off orders like there was no tomorrow. Jake's was having overwhelmingly amazing brown eyes. Just kidding. Kind of.

I looked up the room at Cole, that little mind reading creep turning people's lives into experiments, and looked back at my wings. Maybe if you wanted wings, which some people do, this was great technology. I love my wings, don't get me wrong. It was spending the first four years of my life, running on treadmills with wires taped to my body, on IV drips all the time, living in a dog crate-that was the part I wasn't so happy about. Jake had saved me when he was six and I was four. We ran away and never came back, growing up in Arizona far from Cole and learning our strengths, training ourselves to come back and kill him. A little harsh, I guess, but somebody had to do it. Something had to be done.

Ok, maybe not kill him. But _something_.

"Cole," I said, spitting his name, turning to face him. Jake stood a bit behind me.

"Emily, I knew the day would come when you would return to me. I know how you're planning your attack, you can stop. I'm not going to hurt you. But I would like to reason with you." He spoke, trying for diplomacy, walking around the room with a gait that just screamed "I think I'm the most powerful person in the world."

Ha. Right.

"Cole, no way in heck am I making any kind of deal with you."

"Em," Jake interrupted the beginning of my rant. "Em, he wants us to join him, help him convince people to give up their kids to his experiments." Did I mention Jake can read minds, too? He just doesn't need to when it comes to me. It's kind of like he can turn it on and off-thank God.

But finding out what Cole wanted? That was the last straw. I unfurled my wings, bolted across the room and punched him straight in the face. While he staggered I jumped back and snapped a roundhouse kick right into his stomach. Being inhuman, Jake and I are much stronger than normal people, so I may have accidentally broken a few ribs.

"It's a shame, Emily. You could be such a great addition to the empire I am building," he taunted. But an evil plot works a lot better when you're not laying on the ground, spitting blood and panting and clutching your ribcage.

I placed one combat-booted foot over his neck, pinning him down. "Cole, I will never work for you." I gave Jake a signal, two fingers behind my back, to start listening in on my mind.

_Look for empty crates, and keys_, I told him. He gave an almost imperceptible nod and started walking around the room. I kept Cole pinned. Finally he held up a ring of keys, jingling them in the air. "Payback time, Cole," said Jake. Finally.

I picked him up, threw him in a crate and started unlocking all the other crates. Soon security guards were flooding in, mutants were fighting humans, people were lying on the floor it was an all out war zone. But finally, the freaks prevailed. Go mutants! We double checked that Cole's cage was locked and ran.

"Everyone follow!" I screamed over lizard kids and bird kids and dog kids high fiving and rejoicing and staring in wonder at their legs as they walked around freely. We ran out the room, Jake and I in the lead. There were a lot of bird kids, so bigger bird kids grabbed smaller non-bird kids and as soon as we got outside we shot into the air and into a v-shape like a flock of geese, Cole's goons running out the door and watching us and shouting things I won't repeat.

"We did it, Em, we did it," Jake said, reaching out for my hand and somehow balancing a tiny lizard girl on his back. I had a small winged child whose wing was broken clutching to my back, but I reached out for Jake's hand anyway. It was over. We were alive.

Sure, Cole would come back. But how many kids had we freed? It was good enough for me. So Jake and I—along with about fifty other kids—flew off into Arizona no man's land, free, safe, and hungry.

"McDonalds, anyone?"


	2. Chapters 1 and 2

**1**

Only I could possibly get myself in this much trouble.

It was flying through the sky with Jake and fifty-ish other mutants that made me realize that I am just plain insane. But I love it. Jake's hand was warm in mine, the sky was blue, the wind felt great and all those fifty-ish mutants were smiling, sticking hands out in the air and feeling it, staring at clouds in wonder at their closeness. Cute kids. We'd been to Mickey D's, refueled, and were on the way to the real middle of nowhere to touch down for a while and talk. Why the middle of nowhere despite the Arizona heat? Because I'm an idiot and didn't think about what this would look like walking into a McDonalds. That's me: always thinkin'.

About an hour after McDonald's we touched down in nowhere and settled down in a strange little circle. Bird kids seemed to be pulled towards us, so they formed the inner ring of the circle around Jake and I. Kids moved out of the way so that other kids could see and soon we had a relatively orderly circle of a couple scattered half-rows of wide eyes looking up at my boyfriend and I. Oh, great.

"Alright, well… Hi, everyone. Welcome to the world," I began. And kids clapped. The actually clapped and cheered, and all I'd said was "Hi." _Well, I feel special_, I thought. Jake walked closer and put his arm around my waist. "You are," he told me. _Well, reading my mind, are we?_ I thought, but I knew he'd already picked up on the incoherent thoughts that came when he slid his arm around my waist. "Yes," he said with a laugh. _Well take about three steps backward or your gonna get kicked. It's leader time._ He stepped back with his hands up in the universal "I surrender" position, but he was still laughing at me. Dork.

"Well, anyway, here you are, in the lovely but hot Arizona. I have no idea where any of you guys came from but I obviously cannot take care of all of you, so I don't really know why I'm up here. I guess we'll all hang out today, and then… I don't know, do what's best for you. If you think you need people, find a group. If you think you need a partner, well," I stopped and stepped back to take Jake's hand. "Find one. If you would rather live on your own, I can understand that. I tried it once. Just be aware of how well you really can take care of yourself. Maybe ask a couple people where they're going so that you'll know where to go-well, not like any of us will get to stay in one place long. If there's anything I learned from my good friend Max when she was still around-"

I was cut off as everyone cheered. Max was a legend. Her flock had kind of gone AWOL, but they were legends. They brought the School down to the point where kids like us were helping kids like us all over the world. Itex was failing. Freaks were prevailing. Max had found Jake and I once-though we didn't make it into Fang's blog or any of her little books, because we were on the run and asked not to be mentioned. We hung out a little while and were friends as much as any freaks on the run can be. But we had to go our separate ways of course. Fang and Jake kept in touch blogging, though. Nerds stick together, I guess.

Curly strawberry blond hair fell in my face. Dang, I needed to cut my hair. It was back in a ponytail and still annoying the crap out of me.

"Yes, I know we all love Max. She was one awesome bird girl. But anyway, you've all got your own stories to write, so… I don't know what you've all got me for. Everyone start talking and hanging out and see who you end up with. Stick around for a little while-that is one thing I'm going to take initiative on. We are going to make sure that no one who doesn't want to be alone ends up alone. We are all going to find better lives than the ones those life sucking scumbags at the school tried to give us. We are not experiments, we are people. Cool people, with wings and scales and cool abilities. And we will not go down without a fight. So find someone, please-_I do not recommend going it alone_. But I'm sure there are some people that it's good for. So, now that I've rambled and put you all to sleep, go find someone to hang out with!"

Some of them actually laughed when I made fun of myself and it felt good to be liked. I mean, I'd really only ever had Jake. And Max, when we talked on the blogs.

"Oh, Em, speaking of the blogs, Max wrote to you," Jake said. Gosh dang it.

"Will you stop reading my mind?" I spat at him, faking annoyance but smiling the whole time. He walked two steps closer to me, wrapped both arms around my waste and pulled me into him.

"But you're so easy to read," he laughed, his face inches from mine. But I wasn't about to kiss him in front of these kids. So I leaned in and rested my head on his chest when I felt a little tug at my light grey Converse All-Star t-shirt. I looked down and the little girl I'd carried on my back was there. She had strawberry blond hair like I'd had when I was little-mine was more strawberry dirty blond now, a bit darker. Her eyes were dark brown-like Jake's, only they were cute and almost owl-ish instead of… nevermind. She had pale skin from living in bright white labs her whole life, and wore a hospital-type gown and a bracelet.

Then I remembered that not only was she a winged child, but she had a broken wing.

"Oh my gosh, sweetie, I forgot about your wing," I said, pulling away from Jake and leaning over to put my hand on her arm comfortingly. "Is it okay if you turn around and I look at it for you? Jake broke his once, I think I know how to help a bit. I can definitely find you a way to make it hurt less. But we'll see how bad it is. Is that okay?" She nodded, still silent. She looked to be about four years old, maybe five. She turned around and I gasped. Blood soaked her nightgown on the back-some of it new, some of it maybe not. Her wing had been broken before the break in. But thankfully it had definitely not started to heal. However this was _not_ one that I could fix.

"Oh my gosh sweetie! Doesn't it hurt?" She turned around to face me and I saw tears welling in her eyes. Oh, my gosh, she was so cute…

Then she took two little steps forward and threw her tiny arms around my neck and started to sob. "It hurts so bad," she cried into my hair. I looked at Jake.

"Well, she is adorable. She looks like us. And I know I'm couldn't convince you otherwise even if I wanted to. Oh, and I'm not literally reading your mind this time. I'm just looking at those green grey eyes and thinking, _Oh, crap, I have a daughter_."

The little girl pulled back and looked at me, her face streaked with tears. I instinctively used my thumb to wipe the tears off her face. "Can I stay with you? Can you fix me?"

God, she was adorable.

"Of course, sweetie. I think I love you already." She smiled through the tears and hugged me again and I just held her and smiled at Jake.

"You realize what this means, right?" I asked him expectantly.

"You mean that we have one more mouth to feed?" Wow, practical much?

"No. I mean that the only person who can fix this is Dr. Martinez. And you know what a trip to Dr. Martinez's house means."

**2**

Only Emily could end up with a daughter in five minutes and decide that there was totally a way to cope with that. But now we had a daughter, and yes, I will be telling people that it is ours. Even if she is in no way related to us, and Emily and I are technically not related-both Christian, we won't be having any kids until we get married-that little girl is ours.

The question on the flight to the Martinez's house was "What is your name, sweetie?" Emily's words, of course. That little girl is adorable, but I couldn't bring myself to just immediately call her sweetie. Emily's just a mother by instinct. We used to hang out with some other bird kids-they were the same age as us, but they definitely needed a mother, and Em went on this leader thing for a while. It worked out, though-they all got their lives worked out and eventually ditched us. But it took a toll on her for a while. It made us a lot closer to each other and God when she decided she could save the world one troubled teenager at a time-she _definitely_ needed some support for a while there. And I was happy to give it.

So anyway, we were flying to the Martinez's which was conveniently in Arizona and only a couple hours away by flight, where we knew we could stay for a few days, refuel, decide how we were going to feed another mouth and take care of this little girl, get a lot of food, and rendezvous with Max and the Flock. Because fact is I love them every bit as much as Emily does.

We'd been taking turns with the little girl and she was currently on my back, and the three of us were discussing possible names.

"They don't give you names in science labs," Emily had explained. "It's more like a product number, which isn't right for humans. But I know you know most of that. Anyway, you need a proper name. I liked the name Emily when I was little because of Toy Story 2. I loved the doll Jessie and I wanted to name myself after her owner. Jake named himself after Jacob from the Bible." We then explained to her what the Bible was and decided to raise her Christian, the way we'd have anyone grow up if we got to choose. Wow, becoming a parent at fourteen. Without all the trauma. Woohoo.

"Well, I like a lot of names," the girl said. "Can we have the Flock help us pick one? And Ella and Dr. Martinez? We'll all just say a bunch of them and I can pick what one I like."

I'll give the School credit for one thing: it makes you grow up fast. And this little girl acted eight, not four. That wasn't really fair, but it was good for us, and good for the way she'd have to live, always on the run. Emily and I were kind of becoming big-shots in the world of mutants, running escape plans in locations all over the U.S., once even making it to Mexico. Illegally, of course.

In what seemed like no time at all we'd landed at the Martinez's.

"Emily! Jake!" Ella ran to us, having been just going inside with a bag of groceries which she dropped, running to hug us as we landed and shook out our feathers and a swung the little girl around to hold her in the front-much easier, and my back was tired. And she really was adorable.

Ella ran and hugged Emily, then turned to me and saw our little girl. "Well who is this?" Ella exclaimed, smiling and going to tickle our little girl. Then she saw the brown eyes and strawberry blond curls and looked up at me, then at Emily, a look of horror on her face. I didn't process it until Emily laughed.

"No, Ella, that's not what happened!" Emily yelled to her. "She's not our biological daughter. Though I know, it's kinda weird."

"Well, we've got visitors!" Dr. Martinez yelled as she finally came out of the car with a couple more bags. "Ella, do you really have to destroy something every time a bird kid lands in our front yard?" she asked, gesturing to the bags of food on the ground.

"Well, yes, I do, because they're just gonna eat it all anyway."

"Well, good point," Dr. Martinez said, laughing. "Well, who is that little angel? And I mean angel metaphorically, not as in Angel… wow, that doesn't work anymore," she said, laughing at herself and trailing off. She then did the same thing Ella did and we had to explain the little girl's story. As we explained, we all began to slowly walk inside, and we'd already shown Dr. Martinez the girl's wing. So we went inside and she grabbed some equipment and keys to different rooms at the veterinary clinic she worked at, and we all piled in the car with the girl between Emily and I in the back seat.

"So what's your name, sweetie?" Dr. Martinez asked her, looking at her in the rearview mirror.

"I don't have one yet," she replied, starting out confident and getting quieter, hiding her mouth behind her hands and hiding in my arm. I looked up at Emily and she smiled, and I started reading her mind deciding she was trying to tell me something and that was easier.

_Isn't she adorable? I don't want her to ever grow up,_ she said. I looked back at her and, knowing she couldn't hear me, thought _I wish that could happen_. This was awesome. I had been a bit doubtful, but I should have known Emily would make it work, at all costs.

We got to the clinic and our little girl hid in my arm again, seeing the building and just sensing a doctor-ish office. I'd put an extra jacket on her from my backpack (Emily and I had hid our backpacks somewhere and gone back to get them on the way back, I doubt she felt the need to include that), just a fleece hoodie, but it covered her whole body, so I picked her up and carried her with her body facing mind and no one could see the hospital gown or the blood or the _wings_.

"Hey, Annie," said Dr. Martinez to the secretary. "Giving some kids a tour of the back rooms again." Like this was perfectly normal. We walked right through, my new little girl cringing into my chest and hiding, scared of the antiseptic smell and white walls.

"It's ok, sweetie," I whispered to her, stroking her long, curly hair. It felt like she calmed down a bit-I hadn't even realized she'd been tensing up. How much would that hurt with her injured wing?

I had a flashback to when I'd broken my wing. It would hurt a lot.

"It's ok, sweetie, we're gonna get you all cleaned up and fixed up." She sniffled.

"Okay, so I'm just going to start by washing you off a little bit so that your wings are clean again, okay? I should've thought to bring you some clothes… but I guess I don't really have any…" Dr. Martinez walked around looking for a towel and anything the girl could wear. Nothing. "Alright, we'll have to put you back in that hospital gown for now, but we'll go straight home to give you a proper bath and Jake and Ella will stay with you while I go with Emily to buy you some clothes, all right?" She nodded meekly.

Dr. Martinez picked her up out of my hands and took her back to wash her off, brining her back pretty quickly. "Now we're going to go give you an x-ray, so that I can see what's wrong with your wing, okay?" She just nodded. I knew she'd warm up to Dr. Martinez the same way she had to us, but it would take a little while. With us, it just seemed to… click.

We followed Dr. Martinez to an… x-ray room. I don't know how to describe an x-ray room. She took the x-ray and it was nasty. One of the hollow bones in her wing was bent totally at the wrong angle and had knocked another one funny.

"Well, the good news is I can definitely fix it. The bad news is it's not gonna feel too good for a few days, and it's going to take six weeks to heal, and you probably won't be able to fly for eight weeks. But, then again, I need to take into account the rate at which you guys heal… umm… it will hurt for a few hours, she'll be healed in two weeks, and should be able to fly in four weeks."

"Thank you so much, Dr. Martinez," Emily told her. I couldn't agree more: this little girl needed more help than we could have given her and Dr. Martinez was a miracle worker. She started messing with our baby's wing and soon enough she was wrapped up. The only problem: it was near the base of her wing and she could no longer completely bend it, keeping her from bringing in to her back and concealing it with my jacket. So we improvised: Emily carried her, stood at the back, and the three of us formed a triangle around her and hoped no one noticed. Her wings were small, so we rushed out and it was okay.

Back at Dr. Martinez's, we decided to hang out for a little while. Our little girl said she could survive in the clothes for a little while, she just wanted to rest. She promptly fell asleep on the couch, and so did Emily, with the girl on top of her. So I went to the kitchen, plugged in our laptop and went on the blog to write back to Max.

_Max-_

_At the Martinez's. How soon can you meet up? We've got a surprise for you guys to meet, and she's pretty dang adorable ;)_

_See you soon,_

_Emily_

I thought my Emily impersonation was pretty good. Max wrote back almost immediately-she'd been online.

_Be there soon_

_Max_

Way to be quick, Max. Well, at least I knew she was rounding up the Flock to come say hi. I wondered for a moment what would've happened if she hadn't gone looking for Fang when he'd decided to run off "for the good of the Flock." He knew he'd messed up. We talked on the blog and he was almost literally going to kill himself over it. But thank God, Max found him.

Then I realized of course Max went to look for him. That's just the way those two are. They need each other, in Maxness and in Leaderness, to lead the Flock.

And I need Emily, in Emilyness and Leaderness, to raise this child. Little did I know at the time that we'd pick up a few more…

**HEYY GUYS:) So as you can see, I've finally taken your advice and written a Max Ride FanFic, living up to my name. And dramaqueencve made me realize that I need to stop worrying about whether my writing is good enough for you guys or not. You either like it or you don't-it doesn't mean you don't like **_**me**_**! :P Anyway, I like this one cuz I'm making up the characters and I'm really gonna get to put myself into it. In fact, I've got so many ideas brewing… somebody PM me and tell me to go write something for the LLPA sequel, too-I don't want to accidentally abandon it with this! :P Anyway, I'm having fun. Here you go!**


	3. Chapter 3

**3 (Emily's POV. Sorry, I forgot to write that last time.)**

Finally, Max and Fang and the Flock showed up and Jake woke me up, picking our daughter up off of me and gently shaking my shoulder. I sat up and wiped drool from the corner of my mouth-great, that's attractive-and gestured for the girl, but he said "Nah, it's my turn." How cute is that?

I pulled myself up off the couch, shook out my Converse shirt, tugged at my dark wash skinny jeans and pulled the ankles down over hot pink Converse. Yeah, I looked kind of emo that day. It's not my usual; my usual is whatever clothes I happen to have. Converse t-shirts happened to be cheap at Target. Jeans happened to be cheap at Forever 21. Converse… well, those are not specifically emo, and I kind of have an unhealthy obsession with them.

I pulled my hair out of its ponytail and shook it out a little and decided I was ready, though my eyes were not entirely open. I'm not a fast waker. Unless of course there's, like, Erasers.

I grabbed Jake's hand and he propped our baby on his hip and she hugged him around his waist and I thought, _We are one adorable little winged family_. We walked to the front door and outside to see Ella and Dr. Martinez already giving hugs and saying hellos. Suddenly our presence was announced when Gazzy shouted "Emily!" and ran to hug me. I love that little guy. Nudge was right behind him and the others slowly followed in a procession to hug me, all stopping in front of Jake, except Nudge who simply dodged our baby and hugged him anyway.

"Well, who is that?" Max said, pulling away from hugging me and stepping back to Fang, who put his arm around her waist. She was looking at our baby girl.

"This is our new daughter. _Our very not biological daughter_," I specified when Max looked at me funny.

"Well, okay then. What's your name?" Max asked her.

"We haven't decided yet," Jake cut in. Fang went over and gave him one of those weird little man-hug things where they just kind of slapped each other on the back. I really don't get that, just sayin'.

So everyone looked at me and I said "He's telling the truth." Wow, guys, way to believe him.

"That's kind of part of the reason we wanted you guys to all come. She doesn't know what she wants her name to be, so she decided that we should just have you guys come and go to the Martinez's—cuz she had a broken wing, so we had to anyway—and we could all throw out some ideas and she could pick what she wanted her name to be," and then Jake cut me off, finishing my sentence, "and we told her that was a great idea. So here you all are."

"Alrighty then. Everyone inside!" Max ordered. Our baby was staring at Max like she was the best thing that had ever happened-which, she almost was. But the way she looked at Jake and I was still different. And I loved that. Jake held her and walked back inside, following Max and her Flock, Ella with Iggy, and Dr. Martinez in the back, waiting for me.

"You did the right thing, Emily. You will be a great mother-sixteen years old or not. You are going to raise that girl so well. And I'm proud of you, and Jake. She's adorable. And you picked the right one. But I'd like to warn you-she will not be the only one."

"Dr. Martinez, please tell me this is not one of those things where she's not real, it's all a test, blah, blah, blah."

"No, of course not, Emily. But you picked the right girl. I can't tell you more than that yet. But no, it is not a test, just an event that the School… well, they didn't really plan it, but once it started unfolding, they helped it along a bit. It is not bad, and it will have no bad effects on you. I know you're Christian, and this will make you closer to God, and to Jake, and to Max's Flock, and it will make you stronger, and an amazing mother. Don't be afraid, okay?"

Dr. Martinez is one of those people that you just can't help but trust. And I knew that it was rightfully that way-she was the only trustworthy person who'd ever had contact with the school, us included. I don't recommend you ever trust a freak. Our ultimate goal is the survival of those like _us_, not humans. So unless you've got wings or gills or scales or a tail, I suggest you not fall in love with one of us or something. Ella's just… well, Ella is Ella, and her mom is Dr. Martinez, and she can get away with loving Iggy. So don't try this at home, kids.

I walked inside and sat down on the arm of the couch next to Jake, who had our daughter perched on his knee, her wings outstretched behind her, relaxing. Dr. Martinez had given her adult-strength morphine and she was doing just fine, and after two of the doses it would have taken to make an adult go in a coma she didn't feel the pain anymore, though she said it was a bit soar. I couldn't imagine not flying as long as she'd have to wait. It would be like being in a dog crate again. And I started stroking her strawberry blond curls. Her big brown eyes looked up at me and she rested her head on my knee and closed her eyes and I kept stroking her hair. Sweetest little girl in the world.

"So, ideas for names. Anyone got anything?" I finally spoke up. Dr. Martinez was in the kitchen getting us a truck load of food, bless her.

"Well, there's a lot of names… what about something exotic like Shaniqua? Or something traditional like Elizabeth?" Nudge started rambling before Gazzy put a hand over her mouth. She stopped talking immediately and he put his hand down on the couch next to her.

"Well, I was thinking more along the lines of something like Allison or Nicole or Maddie…" I trailed off. "But I don't know if we want it to be that boring. And I mean, my name is popular, but I had a story behind it."

"Well what if we named her Jessie?" Jake asked. Well, a girl named Jessie was the reason for my name…

"I don't know. It's so hard! What do you think, sweetie?" I asked her, moving some hair out of her face. She looked up at everyone and said in a quiet little voice "I like old fashioned names, like Elizabeth, but less common than that. Really pretty names."

"Well, I think it's time to pull out the laptop, Jake," Iggy said, and we started looking up old fashioned names for girls.

"Alright, honey, tell me if anything jumps out at you," Jake said. That was the first time he'd called her anything like honey or sweetie. I'd thought he felt weird doing it. But it was cute.

"Isabella, Olivia, Caroline, Gracie, Charlotte, Sophie…-"Those ones," she said.

"Which ones, sweetie? Charlotte and Sophie?" I asked her, still playing with her hair. I was braiding it now, subconsciously.

"Yes. Charlotte and Sophie. I like those ones. Can a person have two names?" she asked.

"Well, of course. They can have a first name, a middle name, and a last name. But usually their last name comes from their Mommy and Daddy," I explained to her. "Do you want your first and middle names to be Charlotte Sophie, in that order? Or Sophie Charlotte?"

"Charlotte Sophie," she answered, giving me a cute little smile and an excited little jump. "But what's our last name?" she asked, with big curious eyes, looking from my face to Jake's and back and forth. Jake and I looked at each other.

"I don't know," we both said at once. Well, that's a new thought.

"Do we really need one?" I asked. "I mean, it's kind of just a symbol that you're a family. But we don't really need that. I mean, isn't Max the only one of you with a last name? And that's just cuz 'Maximum Ride' sounds awesome," I joked. Everyone laughed a bit.

"So you're name is Charlotte Sophie? Alright, works for me. But I might have to call you Charlie for short," I said to her, and she said she liked that just as much as how pretty Charlotte sounded.

"That's my girl," I told her. "Charlie. Yeah, I like it, sweetheart. I think it fits you," I said, finishing the braid and wondering what I could tie it with, then realizing she still had no clothes.

"Hey Nudge, I've been waiting for you to get here… well Angel, you too… because there's another thing about Charlie just getting here. See, she's been in the School in southern Arizona all her life, and she doesn't have anything to wear other than this hospital gown-"SHOPPING!" Nudge screamed in the middle of my sentence. But I was kind of hoping she would do that.

"Max, is it okay if I steal your girls?" I asked her jokingly, knowing she'd relish the chance to hang out with Fang without getting teased by her Flock. Gazzy and Iggy would go off and do their own thing, of course. Then again, Ig might go with Ella… hmm…

"Fine by me," Max said, not exactly smiling but still obviously happy. Max is just so… Max. But that's okay, I love her.

"Okay. Ella, you wanna come with us, or are you gonna-"No it's okay, I think I'm going to stay here," she cut in. Well, good to know I can finish a sentence around here. Alright, so that left me, Nudge, Angel, Charlie…

"Anyone else wanna come shopping for Charlie? Charlie makes the executive decisions, of course, but anyone who wants to can help…"

"I'm the father, I'm stuck, right?" Jake joked as Charlie leaned back onto him and grabbed his hand. Her tiny hand looked so funny in his, even bigger than my average-sized hands (I don't have tiny little girly hands-just normal hands. Ha-ha.). But it was sweet.

"Well, I wasn't going to make you come. But I have this feeling you won't be able to hang out with Fang or Iggy, so unless you're gonna tag along with Gazzy, then yes, you're coming."

"Actually, I think I'll stick with Gazzy. Someone's gotta keep him from seeing things he doesn't need to see from the older members of his Flock, right? I mean, if I had parents, I would not wanna see them going all Max-and-Fang either…" he joked. Fang got up from where he'd been sitting with his arm around Max and punched Jake in the gut. Jake punched right back and they laughed. Dorks.

"Alright, Dr. Martinez, are you still coming?" I asked. Wow, this was taking a while. I was impatient. But that's mostly because being a bird kid we're used to needing to do things fast fast fast fast fast. So I told myself to breathe and breathe and breathe some more and soon everyone, Dr. Martinez included because I realized that although of legal age Max and I had neglected the detail of getting driver's licenses', was loaded into the car and ready to go, with Charlie sitting in my lap because we didn't have enough room.

"So, Dr. Martinez, where does one go for four year old clothes? Actually, I bet we could all use some new stuff while none of us our running for our lives-ONLY essentials, Nudge, you have to run everything by me first and I am your surrogate Max. So where are we headed?"

"Target."

Well, woohoo. As we pulled into the parking lot, Charlie stared at all the stores we passed in the little strip mall, and stared up at the huge cement block with red stripes and circles that was the store of her dreams. I'd thought to bring my backpack and I looked at it and made a resolution.

"We're calling the guys, and Max and Ella. If this is going to become some big shopping trip, then Jake and I should get new backpacks. I'm going to go use that pay phone. Nudge, you and Angel can head to the girl's section, or teens, or wherever you two decide to shop. I guess you are thirteen now, huh, Nudge?" I asked her. She rambled proudly about how she was finally a teenager before she and Angel headed off to the teen section, and I fumbled with Dr. Martinez's cell phone and Jake answered the phone. Soon Max was very illegally driving them to the biggest Target I had ever seen, toting his ratty old backpack and depressingly as eager for a new one as I was.

And, of course, Charlie would need one too.


	4. Chapters 4 and 5

**4 (Still Emily)**

Okay, so this Target was, like, HUGE. Jake and Fang and Iggy headed off to the guys section while Max, Ella and I headed off to the women's/teens/whatever section, and Dr. M, bless her, went to watch the little ones. Gazzy trailed along with Angel and Nudge and tried not to explode. Max, Ella and I had fun talking about the guys. Angel and Nudge drooled over clothes. The guys… I have no idea. Ha-ha.

Max did not like shopping, I knew that, so Ella and I forced her to try on some stuff that was actually cute. We got her in to a black dress once and snapped some pictures before she could get it off. Then we decided to sabotage.

"Hey Max, try on that black dress again. I wanna relish in the moment when you wear something other than jeans and combat boots," Ella joked, laughing. We were all in one giant dressing room. Ella and I were wearing black dresses, too, trying to convince her to put it on again so we could take a picture of all three of us in the dress that looked amazingly good on all of us.

But Max was not getting out of this one.

"Surprise!" I yelled, jumping around Max and coming up behind her with my hands cupped over her eyes as Ella grabbed her around the waist. She didn't fight us the way she would have Erasers, but she did get a little mad.

"Let me go! This is so not fair! Public humiliation by dress is NOT COOL!" she was screaming as shoppers turned to stare at us and dismissed us as stupid teenagers. Finally we heard the guys laughing over by some jeans and told Max to shut up.

"If you make any noise, we will throw you into the guys bathroom and let them all stare at you after we tie you up with duct tape," I told her, and Ella cupped a hand over her mouth. I grabbed a shirt and tied it around her eyes, grabbing her mouth and hands as Ella led the way to the guys.

"Hey, guys," she said nonchalantly, pushing aside some clothes and walking up to them as Iggy's mouth dropped.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Max screamed as I pushed her, my hand barely muffling her. But it was too late. I untied the shirt, returning her sight, and pushed her at Fang, who caught her elbows as she stumbled into his chest and looked up to his face, her dress swooshing towards him as she sort of landed from being pushed. Yeah, that's me, miracle worker, getting Max into Fang's arms _in a black dress_.

"Well, somebody looks hot today," Fang joked, and I saw Max blush. Now that is something you don't see very often. But she was still pissed.

Then I saw Jake and decided to ignore everyone else.

"Hola," I said casually, forgetting I was wearing a dress too as he stared at me.

"Hey, hello in there, Emily speaking," I said, laughing at him and walking over to hug him. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kept staring at me.

"Well, you have got to warn me when you're gonna wear a dress, cuz I did not know it would have this effect on me," he said as I rested my head on his chest and laughed.

"Oh, I don't think it will be happening very often. And I think I like surprising you better," I said smiling, getting up on my tip-toes and kissing him. I pulled away and he smiled at me, and then I felt a little tug on my dress. Déjà vu.

"Hi, sweetie," I said, not even bothering to turn around before knowing who it was and picking her up. "What do you have there?" She was holding a pink and orange striped dress with a pocket on the front and a little purple flower on it.

"Can I get it mommy? Please?" I loved how she called me mommy when I was so clearly not her mommy. But I guess in a way I was. Now the dilemma: do I let her get it? It's not very practical…

_She can buy _one_ impractical thing. That's it_, I thought, proud of myself for deciding.

"Sweetie, it's not very practical, because you can't fight in it or anything, but just this once," I told her, and she squealed with excitement and wrapped her arms around me.

"Can you buy one very impractical thing?" Jake asked, dodging Charlie and kissing me again. "I don't know, Jake, I can't fight in it or anything" I told him. Dork.

"But we're not fighting all the time. We're not fighting right now," he said, kissing me again.

"Okay, okay, fine, we can each get one impractical thing. And no more kissing today, jeez!" I joked, pushing him in the chest. He laughed loudly at that one and walked off with all the guys and everyone split into their groups again. We each gathered some clothes, then went off with our respective families for one last swipe around the store for anything needed as a family. We needed more than they did, Jake and I having just been on a mission and just acquired a third member of our according-to-Dr. Martinez growing Flock, capital F. We got random little snacks like granola bars that are good for the road, root beer (come on, Jake, cans are heavy), Cup O' Noodles type stuff (boiling water over a fire is, like, the easiest thing to do over a fire) and some fruit and stuff like that, in addition to a lot more dried fruit than fresh. We never knew when the next time was that we'd hit a store. Jake and I got new shoes and got some for Charlie, everyone got new backpacks (thank God, the old one was actually starting to _hurt_) and I got soap. Lots and lots of soap. And shampoo. And they're all gonna deal with the fact that I got stuff for them, too. Oh, and Pac-Man Band-Aids (yeah, they exist. **AN: However, you cannot find them at Target, but you can find them at Bruce's, a candy store in Cannon Beach, Oregon**). And one Beanie Baby (I caved, okay?).

And one black dress. Dang.

Finally, having spent way more of Dr. Martinez's money than I ever wanted to see on one of those little flashing screens, our Flock left with a lot more spent than Max's better prepared Flock. Go figure.

"It's okay, Emily, we're used to the number of people that we have, and it doesn't change," Angel said, answering my thoughts.

"Thanks, Ange," I said, ruffling her blond hair.

That's when things started going wrong.

**5**

Emily looked adorable, holding Charlie and talking to Angel and Gazzy while we waited in line. Fang caught me staring at her.

"Earth to Jake," he joked, waving his hand in front of my face. I honestly had not heard him talking to me. He was laughing.

"Wait, what?" I said, before I laughed at myself. Dang. Stay in the real world, Jake.

"It's okay, I get it. Max is… Max. There's nothing else I can say on that one," Fang said, trailing off and staring at Max. Iggy was standing with Ella, so we couldn't tease him yet. Later.

"Earth to Fang," I laughed, getting him back by waving my hand in his face. He slapped it out of his way and I punched him in the arm. Then Charlie got this look on her face that I cannot possibly describe. I have never seen a child scared like that, and think about where I grew up.

"Bad people," Charlie said simply. She hid in Emily's shoulder. Em turned around and looked at me, very, very alarmed, and I turned on my mind reading. I picked up on weird thoughts from Angel, since her's was a jumble of thoughts like mine. I tuned her out, then Em, and gradually the rest of us, knowing we were not the "bad people." Then Angel and I picked up on it at the same time. We'd paid and were at the car, anyway, but there were loads of people. This must have been the busiest Target in the country, not even kidding.

"Got 'em. Erasers, and a couple whitecoats. Not interested in killing. They want…"

Angel and I paused and looked at each other for confirmation that we were picking up on the same thing. Max and Emily shot into mommy-mode.

"What do they want, Jake," they both said at once.

"They want Charlie."


	5. Chapter 6

**6 (Emily)**

No.

No no no no no no no no NO!

"Everyone in the car," I said quietly, everyone piling in to the two cars we'd ended up bringing.

"Max's Flock and the Martinez's, go in the minivan. Where did you guys even get that? Jake and Charlie, in the compact car."

"I'm going with you guys for now," Max said.

"I go with her," Fang added. Max smiled.

"Alright, fine. We could use the help. Everyone in, no more time." Erasers were walking towards us, slowly. They wouldn't follow far-they go more for easy prey on hot days.

Max sat in the front, with Charlie hiding at her feet. Fang, Jake and I sat in the back with me squished on the floor even though Dr. Martinez, driving, had moved her chair all the way forward. We were taking everything Jake and I had gotten and, very unorganized-ly, putting it into our backpacks, putting very little in Charlie's-just her clothes and her Beanie Baby.

"Mommy?" Charlie whimpered from the front. Max reached down and held her hand.

"What, sweetie?" I asked, quietly, trying to pretend she wasn't there to anyone watching-like, say, the Erasers in the car behind us.

"I'm scared."

"I am too, sweetie. But they are not going to get you." I wouldn't let them. I would kill them. Without a second thought-

**6.5 (Jake)**

-I would kill them. Not my girlfriend, and not that little girl. Not today, and not ever.

**6.75 (Emily)**

"Okay, I think backpacks are done," Jake announced. We had a plan. Max's Flock did not know the plan, but they would catch on quickly. They were following us, behind the Erasers that were behind us.

Dr. M was going to drive into an alley, and the Erasers would follow, thinking they'd cornered us, but they were way outnumbered. Dr. Martinez said she knew the perfect spot and that we were close. So we would jump out of the car, take them down, and the three of us would get our tail feathers out of there. Okay, so maybe we don't have tail feathers, but you get the idea.

Dr. M turned sharply and the Erasers, a bit shaken by their presence obviously being known, followed, followed by a grayish blue minivan. Dr. M slammed on the breaks, and the Erasers followed suit, but by the time they had gotten out of the car, we were all out, Jake and I wearing backpacks, him holding Charlie's and running around the car to give her her's, Max and Fang getting their Flock out. The Erasers ran straight for us and Charlie and I side kicked one in the stomach, hearing ribs snap and watching him fall to the ground. I kicked him in the head for good measure and his eyes rolled back in his head. Ha. That's what you get for messing with my family.

Soon Max's Flock was out and beating up the remaining five Erasers, Jake had gotten Charlie's backpack on her, and we were shouting our goodbyes.

"See you in cyberspace!" Jake joked to Fang, who gave a solemn wave between kicks and punches. Nudge ran over to hug us before spinning around and roundhouse kicking an Eraser to the ground with a loud yell. I love them so much.

"Up and away?" I asked Jake. He got Charlie on his back.

"Pink Angel," I said to Jake, and he nodded without a word. We had made up a code so that we could say our plans to each other without having to use his mind reading-because I figure what if someone else can read minds, or what if something goes wrong with his mind reading? And no we would need it for Charlie. So I had just told him to go to Lake Mead-our favorite place to hide after a successful mission, because someone is always looking for you. We've got a few places we go frequently, and a few places for the emergencies where we really, really think we're being followed and our lives are being threatened. We haven't used them yet.

Yet.

Lake Mead was a pretty long flight while carrying a little girl, so we stopped a couple times, took bathroom breaks, etc., before we finally got to Lake Mead, where I practically collapsed in the cave. I helped Charlie change into some unicorn pajamas and she crashed in the corner under a blanket. Jake and I sat on the ledge, legs dangling over, looking out at the lake and listening to everything. I wanted to sleep but I wasn't sure if I could, knowing that Charlie could be in danger. I trusted Jake. I trusted him insanely. But I didn't want either of us to fall asleep if we started taking watches… I knew we were probably safe here, but I couldn't stand it.

"How are we going to do this?" I asked Jake. I couldn't believe I was the one doubting our mad parenting skills now. But we really needed to talk.

"We're going to do it the way we do everything else: praying a lot and leaning on each other a lot, and keeping in touch with Max and Fang so that we don't go totally insane." Wow, I love him.

"Dr. Martinez told me some weird stuff," I said, laying down on my side, using his leg as a pillow and looking out at the moonlit lake. I found this strangely comfortable. We had a blanket wrapped around us and he moved it so that it was just over me, and stroked my hair. My really, really long hair that I needed to chop.

"What kind of weird stuff?" he said calmly, always the level-headed one. I was the worrier. Not warrior. Worrier. Yeah. Great, right?

"She said… she said that Charlie isn't the only one that we'll keep. She said our Flock is growing… that it won't get out of hand, and it's not a test or anything. She said it's like… the School helped move it along, but it's not a test really," I was sitting back up now, wrapping the blanket around both of us again.

"She said it's like a test to make us stronger, to make our relationship with God stronger, but the School doesn't care. It is a test in that they're watching how we cope, but we don't really have any benefits or consequences from it, so I guess it doesn't really matter, but I thought it was kind of a good thing that Dr. Martinez mhmmmmhmm mmm mm…." He had leaned over and kissed me and I had trailed off, words no longer making sense with his lips on mine. Epic fail. He pulled away.

"Sweetie, you worry too much. Take a deep breath. We can pray about it, okay? Just breathe." I exaggerated and breathed like I was giving birth. "Not what I meant," he laughed, and I put my head on his shoulder and we just listened to everything and that was the last thing I remembered before I woke up to the smell of Cup O' Noodles and the warmth of someone having recently gotten up from next to me and the bubbly laughter of my honorary daughter mixing with the deeper laughter of my boyfriend. That is a moment I wanted to just record in my mind and keep forever.


End file.
